


Lucky for some

by Mossgreen



Series: 2770 ab urbe condita [46]
Category: 2770 ab urbe condita - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Rome, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Master/Slave, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 02:48:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossgreen/pseuds/Mossgreen
Summary: On one of Rome's unlucky days, Master gets a day off. Being only a slave, Ven doesn't.





	Lucky for some

**Author's Note:**

> Please note there is some sex at the end of this story. While it's not hugely explicit, you may want to stop reading before you get to the end.
> 
> Also, for all of my wonderful regular readers and kudos-ers: All my works in this setting are part of the [2770 ab urbe condita collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2770_ab_urbe_condita), which also includes stories by some other very talented writers. I urge you to go and check them out, too, if you like these stories.

Master was not the most religious man in Rome, but even Master wasn’t about to tempt the Fates and work on a _diēs āter_ , one of the black days of ill-omen. From Ven’s recollection of the little he’d read about Rome in the old days of the Empire, there had been a lot more religious days in the calendar but since the establishment of the New Empire, the Serene Empire, some of those days had got dropped or amalgamated with others or something, streamlining the whole thing and reducing the number of _feriae_ , because such a lot of otherwise useful days were lost for no real good reason.

Private citizens (and their households!) were still free to celebrate whatever other festivals they chose, of course.

Saturnalia and Nemoralia were still publicly celebrated, as was the Vestalia (probably because the Vestal Virgins had put their collective feet down and ordered it to happen regardless of what the Emperor or the Senate said). Even the Lupercalia, somehow, was still listed; Ven had seen it circled clumsily in red on the calendar hanging lopsided in the slaves’ break room, though he had no idea who would want to bother with a… No, he could guess who. 

And _somehow_ the _diēs ātrī_ were still included - Ven could only guess somebody, somewhere, hadn’t want to tempt the Fates any worse than they had by combining so many actual festivals. There weren’t very many of the black days, anyway, so it wasn’t so hard to observe them - Grumio prepared a stew in the big slow-cooker and threatened dire things if it wasn’t turned on by the person attending to the _lararium_ when they turned on the hot water heater, the other slaves had minimal work to do, though they still had work because it wasn’t a holiday.

All of _that_ to remember just why he was lying in his master’s bed when ordinarily they would have been up and busy a while ago. Master was lying on his back with Ven curled beside him on his stomach, his head resting on his master’s lightly-furred chest; Master had pulled his tunic off at some point and dropped it on the floor. It was warm, early autumn warm; the curtain stirred in the breeze from the atrium and Ven shifted a little, comfortable and drowsy, soothed by the rhythm of his master’s heartbeat, his master’s fingers tangled with his hair while the other hand cupped his bare bum.

"Don’t tell me you’re asleep, boy," Master said suddenly.

Ven _had_ been very nearly asleep, despite the hour, but stirred and shifted obediently, opening his eyes. "No, Master."

"I’ve been thinking about that child - what’s her name? The one I bought the other day."

That was odd; it wasn’t like Master to forget the name of a slave, even if he never - well, rarely - addressed them by name directly. Much easier to keep track of your property if you could remember what they were all called - easier to know who to discipline, too, and give instructions for it.

"Briseis, Master?" All drowsiness had gone, Ven moved to rest his chin lightly on his master’s chest so he could see his face, and waited for his master to elaborate. 

"Yes." The hand on Ven’s bum squeezed before going back to caressing. "Tomorrow, while I’m in the office, I want you to go and buy a _tabula_ for her - not too expensive."

"Not today?" Ven asked, surprised. His master generally wanted things done immediately, it was rare to get a day’s notice for something like that.

Master slapped his bum before returning to kneading it. "Don’t be stupid, boy. The shops are shut today, no business may be conducted at all, by anyone."

Ven closed his eyes for a moment. Of course the shops were shut on a _diēs āter_ ; Master hadn’t had any _cliēntēs_ call, either.

"You get on with her, don’t you, pet." It was not a question

"Yes, Master… at least, I think so. She seems to like me, anyway." She was the right sort of age to be his daughter, though thinking about that raised all sorts of questions Ven was not prepared to examine right now. Complicated questions, the sort that a master would answer by telling a slave what he would, or would not, be permitted to do, and tangled questions about the emotions provoked.

Relationships between slaves were tricky in ways Ven did not think free people could ever fully appreciate, and he was obscurely glad (at least, a little) that his master had claimed him and thus removed the necessity for Ven to have to think about those complicated, tricky, potentially _painful_ questions.

"We shall need to examine your timetable and perhaps rearrange things; I want you to give Briseis some basic tutoring. A couple of hours a week should suffice, for now at least, and will not interfere too much with your other duties, and your own tuition."

"Yes, Master." Ven tamped down the sudden flare of irritation at losing more of what little precious free time he had - ‘free’ time, that was a laugh. A slave belonged to his master, therefore a slave’s time belonged to his master. 

Most masters were sensible enough to realise that they could not make their slaves work all hours of the day without the slave eventually collapsing under the stress… on the other hand, right now, Ven could hardly be considered to be ‘working’ and yet he was certainly not relaxing and doing what he wanted to do. Correction: He was not doing what he might have preferred to do, but lying in his master’s bed was more relaxing than not, even if there was a slight tension in it, as there always was when a slave was in his master’s presence.

It wasn’t as though Ven really did much in his free time anyway; he had had far more before becoming his master’s _concubīnus_ , and more before also taking on the role of his secretary, too. It was in the early days of being his master’s bed-slave that he had experimented with make-up, and that had partly been to fill some of his free time while Master was in the office. 

He made a mental calculation of how he spent his days, and where he could fit in a lesson or two with Briseis - over the internet, of course. Would he have to set and mark homework? He was no teacher, of any description! 

But he had had no homework set himself, and his learning had all been… well, not furtive; he was pretty sure his previous owner had been aware of it, on some level. Masters always _were_ aware of their slaves’ activities on some level, after all!

He spent his mornings with Master until breakfast was over. Willow attended while Master received his _cliēntēs_ and Ven spent that time sorting his master’s correspondence and doing his exercises. There would be time spent in the office, during which Ven took notes or ran errands. After they left the office, he might attend Master at the baths, where Master did a lot of networking and other business. Late in the afternoon at home, Master would generally watch some television while Ven had his own studies to do - Master had signed him up for some online courses specifically designed for slaves to improve their computing skills to better serve their masters.

He might have to exercise and shower in the evening - but after a long day, that might prove to be too much!

The hand in his hair made a minute adjustment and Ven looked back up at his master before he had his hair pulled or received a tap or smack.

"Pay attention, boy," Master said, although there hadn’t been anything in particular for Ven to need to pay attention to.

"I beg your pardon, Master," he said, his eyes lowered, just to be on the safe side.

"I do not expect you to coach her in any more than the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic - there are programs for such tuition, it may be done over the internet and you will accompany me on my weekly visits to Osteria Nova."

"Yes, Master," Ven replied, making a mental note that he would lose an afternoon a week that he could have used for other things.

Master continued as though Ven had not spoken. "I am thinking of eventually sponsoring her through the client program, although I am not sure which field to place her in yet."

Ven stiffened a little under his master’s hands as the words registered in his brain. "Master… doesn’t that cost an awful lot of money?"

His own value of 10, 000 sesterces was about as large an amount of money as he could imagine, but paying to put a slave through any sort of education and training with the client program must cost far more - and would be money that his master would not make back with the sale of the slave, who would be freed on her thirtieth birthday as a fully trained and licensed… something-or-other.

"Yes, a great deal," Master replied.

Ven turned his head, resting it on Master’s chest again, thinking. "I’ve never understood what the master gets out of paying for a slave to be trained for… something, in the programme,” he said, slowly, a little wary in case his master took exception to his curiosity. “If a slave can’t be certified, then they can’t qualify and practise till they’re freed, and the master can’t earn from them like he can with, I don’t know, a craftsman."

"It’s a long-term view, pet. Prestige, adding to the Empire’s economy, gaining an influential and skilled client…"

Ven nodded. Free citizens could take a long-term view of things; slaves could not - a slave never knew when he might be sold or his circumstances might otherwise change. He had no pension, no need to worry about housing or food or income, no need to think what his life might look like in five years or ten years; it would likely be the same as it was today.

The hand on his arse adjusted its position and eased the plug out of him.

"Right, pet. As you’re not asleep, you can ride my cock for me."

Ven shifted to sit up and reached for the lube bottle. 

“Yes, Master,” he said, wrapping his hand around his master’s half-hard prick, running his hand along it and sliding the foreskin back, teasing it carefully and gently into full hardness. Once it was fully hard, he added some more lube and moved to kneel over his master, carefully guiding his master’s cock into his own prepared hole, not surprised to feel his master wrap his hand around his own prick.

He let his thighs do the work of lifting him up and down, the upward motion easing his master’s prick out while at the same time pushing his own cock into the hand wrapped around it and held still, the downward movement filling him as his cock slipped out of his master’s hand.

How like his master, to make him do all the work of teasing himself from both directions at once. He tried to concentrate on his bum, pleasuring his master’s cock, and was eventually rewarded by his master removing his hand from his prick to grip his hips, thrusting up into him and filling him with the evidence of his completion.

He had not come himself, and was not about to be allowed to.

"Clean me up and then get yourself whatever reading material you like, and go and lie on your cot in the corner."

"Yes, Master."

He didn’t need to leave the room to obey that order; there was a pile of back issue of Ave! serve by his cot, but he passed them over in favour of the atlas he’d been allowed to borrow.

"On your stomach, you can prop that up against the headboard if you need to," Master directed.

Ven eventually found himself lying with his legs apart, his prick and balls hanging between them and visible to his master as lube and come trickled slowly down from his hole.

"Now there’s a view worth looking at," Master informed him. 

Ven gave an abortive wriggle and flushed red. "Thank you, Master."

Behind him, he heard Master pick up his _tabula_ and begin working, as he turned to the page showing Tiancho and tried to imagine what life might be like in the world’s other great Empire.

**Author's Note:**

>  _diēs āter_ (pronounced de-ays ah-ter) black day (plural is _diēs ātrī_ ), a day of ill omen when no business could be conducted. (They were also known as _diēs nefāsti _, unlucky days)__  
>  _feriae_ religious festivals  
>  _cliēntēs_ \- clients. In the Roman system of patronage, clients were man’s freedmen or lower-class citizens who could expect advice and/or pecuniary remuneration for carrying out certain duties and errands a patron could not or would not entrust to his slaves.  
>  _concubīnus_ \- bed-slave; male concubine. A male concubine was _always_ a slave, a female concubine ( _concubīna_ ) could be a freedwoman or, possibly, a non-citizen free woman or, far more rarely, a low-class citizen.  
>  _tabula_ \- tablet computer  
> Tiancho - the great Eastern empire covering China. (The name is a bad pronunciation of the Mandarin meaning 'Heavenly Kingdom'.)


End file.
